The recent announcement of a Nova Scotia Feed-in Tariff has helped bring the total of Canadian provinces utilizing this policy tool to 2.  More to come?

The Nova Scotia approach differs somewhat from Ontario’s.  For one, there is little to no incentive for solar photovoltaic power, but big support for tidal and wave, providing a much-needed market driver for this very new realm of renewable energy development.

Here are two good links to get more information.  One is the Nova Scotia Power web-page, and the other is from an independent clean energy advocate who writes a mean blog.

Why is the controversial Site C dam project still under consideration, when the Liberal government and BC Hydro are clearly embracing new power supply from a distributed network of Independent Producer sites?  The combined output of a world-class wind resource in the province’s Northeast, together with a range of run-of-river and geothermal energy hot-spots, can equal the power but have a far smaller ecological impact that a kilometre-long dam.

The Tyee again provides more information on the issue.

This page at BC Hydo lists the most recent Clean Energy Call contract winners.  It still remains to be seen which of these will pass muster with the BC Utilities Commission.

10 projects were selected March 11, and an additional 4 more recently.  8 projects are still under consideration.  Companies to watch in regards to investment and potential career options.

BC Hydro Clean Call page

As is so often (sadly) the case with politically-driven processes, the vested interests within the BC Hydro Clean Power Call are not without their influences.  For those interested in knowing a little bit more about the players behind the headlines, check out this well-researched piece at The Tyee about a major law firm that stands to benefit from the development of many of the selected projects, and which also has an executive on the BCH Board of Directors.

Today is a good day to take stock of recent developments around the True North Strong and Free; despite a refusal by the Federal Gov’t to renew funding for renewable energy development, real progress is taking place in several regions.

Ontario. The country’s most populous province is making headlines, and attracting investment, from around the World, as its new and improved Feed-in Tariff rolls into action. In early March the province announced its first crop of selected medium sized clean energy projects under 10 megawatts, a total of 510, the majority of them solar photovoltaic. This is in addition to 700 “microFIT” projects awarded to home-owners, schools, small businesses, and farms in December. Ontario is rockin’ the green juice.

BC and Alberta. The Western siblings of great natural clean energy resources, but intermittent commitment, are also showing signs of life, most recently BC. During the Olympics, Leader Gordon Campbell announced a trio of new projects, as well as the government’s intentions around a Clean Energy Act. In its most recent Throne Speech the provincial Liberals announced the creation of the Act, to help it push forward with the development of wind and run-of-river hydro private power projects.
The BC Sustainable Energy Association, among others, while praising the creation of the new legislation, and giving polite applause for the announcement of $100 million for clean energy and energy efficiency investment, point out that $1.3 billion is allocated to highway and road expansion, as well as a billion or so to the oil and gas industry.

BC Hydro has at last awarded new power purchase agreements to 19 developers, with more expected at the end of March.
The process has been stymied for the past 18 months, as a BC Hydro Clean-Power-Call went through several delays due to disagreements with the BC Utilities Commission. The situation is very politically entangled in BC, but what keeps investors interested is the overall ‘green culture’, and the very good small hydro and wind resources. Tidal power also should have a bright future, but has unfortunately been sidelined by the provincial utility, prompting many tidal and wave developers to move to friendly waters in the Maritimes. This hyper-link is to a June 2008 article, and thus far there has been no significant announcement to show real support for ocean energy specifically.

Alberta, from the standpoint of the provincial government, doesn’t have a great deal to celebrate, yet. The recent establishment of a Climate Change Centre for Municipalities, is greatly over-shadowed by a recent roll-back in royalties the province collects from the oil and gas sector, reducing available funds for investment in greener sources of energy. That said, the province was the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce some form of greenhouse gas legislation. Dollars per tonne of emissions are paid by companies operating in the province, and collected into a clean energy technology transfer fund. Visit the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp to learn more about projects currently under development.
Enmax Corporation is doing some interesting things. This year it will roll out a program to its Southern Alberta residential customer base that allows home-owners to lease solar and wind energy technology, paying a monthly rate for power produced, with Enmax holding the capital costs and system maintenance duties. Something to watch for in the months ahead.

Victoria, BC

As the post-Olympic political session gets underway in Victoria, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and others are pressing hard to receive clarity around a number of issues involved in the successful development of a clean energy sector in the province. Many hope that strong policies and clear, concise regulations will be set out in the upcoming release of the new Clean Energy Act.

Full Story at the Vancouver Sun

Calgary, for an oil-town, has an active and growing clean-tech and renewable energy sector.  This week there’s still time to register for WADE Canada’s RETScreen project assessment workshop, a full two day exploration of how to use the RETScreen software to assess clean energy project development decisions.

WADE (World Alliance for Decentralized Energy) Canada is headquartered in Calgary, and works to enable and encourage the development of energy sources that are scaled to loads and located in close proximity to where the energy will be consumed.

WADE Canada is one strong example of how students, workers and professionals in the Calgary region can join the ranks of the Canadian renewable energy sector.  More to come in future posts.

After a 1 year detour, conditions have returned to move forward again.  Renewable REcruits is in full effect, with a new mandate to aid people in starting strong with the Canadian renewable energy and energy management sector.  See Services for more information on the goods. 

It was quite a year, specifically the hands-on experience last Summer at the Bear Mountain Wind-park, BC’s first utility scale wind installation.  Now, work crews are on the ground installing tower sections at BC’s second facility, the Dokie Ridge Wind-farm, located near Chetwynd in the province’s Northeast.  There is talk of expanding this project to a total capacity of 300 megawatts!  This whole region is considered very good for wind, due to the geographical lay-out of the landscape.  If you feel called to wind-tower installation or development work, go ahead and forward your CV to info@renewablerecruits.com.

Today, recruiting and communications work has returned to the radar, and with full dedication Renewable REcruits re-enters the sector in this capacity.  We are re-locating to the city of Calgary, to better serve the growing clean-tech and renewable energy business community.

Currently, work on building and promoting Clean Energy Classrooms 2.0 is underway!  This exciting project represents the first step on the path to a clean energy career: Education.  A wide range of programs and courses now exist across Canada, take a look!

Check out Part 1 about the hands-on experience of working at the Bear Mountain Wind-park near Dawson Creek BC!

Part 1: The sub-station

Part 2: The towers arrive

Part 3: Installing electrical

Originally posted at the BCSEA news listserv, in response to this letter to the editor by Blair Lekstrom, BC’s new Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources.

“I choose to see, and then apply myself and work towards, the positive aspects in this private-power situation, being as it is the current climate that my generation has to work with. It has more opportunity for a newcomer like me than a crown-corp based, union strangle-hold business model does, for sure! Just landed work as an electrical apprentice on a wind-park project here in Northern BC.

I choose not to feed into the ‘raped by the IPP’ mentality, thanks anyway. I also for the record don’t want to see the Site C built here, with its attendant fallout. Smaller hydro, that ‘grows in’ quite nicely in 3 to 5 years, especially with riparian planting measures etc, has my preference.

Electricity is far more vast of a thing than simply ‘public service’. No-one owns electricity. It can be generated, transmitted, bought, sold, spun out from the core of stars, created at home, or even lived without completely. It can also be fought over, or bring people and organizations together for mutual benefit (ie good business, which admittedly to date has often not been the case, ie Bill C-30 which strips regional district/municipal rights to local land management authority). What a mistake, that is NOT the kind of at-all-costs approach I am in favour of, personally.

But, a BC Hydro that is hesitant about building new generation itself, including with new technologies, during a historical period of intense global innovation and adoption in these technologies, will lose the ’should be run be government’ rights and entitlement, not because they deserve to lose them, but because they simply do, that’s reality.

Philosophically, this may be an attitude, and resulting consequence of the citizens of BC as well, being as the will of the people is reflected, directly and indirectly, by the governments they elect. How this plays out in the upcoming election will be very interesting to witness.”

Kevin Pegg, President of Energy Alternatives, Victoria BC:

Being an employer in the RE sector, I have a constant flow of resumes coming in. One common trend I find is lack of specialty. Do you want to design systems, or do you want to install them?

If installation and the hands-on aspect is what excites you, I strongly urge people to build on an existing trade. Therefore, if you want to do solar hot water, get your plumbing ticket. Solar PV, electrical etc. If you are more interested in the design aspect, then learning building systems, estimation skills, and the computer skills (ie CAD) that are expected.

Far too often, I see resumes from people who want to be an installer, have taken a 2 year college course somewhere, but previous to that had never swung a hammer in their life, no experience with buildings, no background in electricity or electronics. Or they want to sell renewable energy systems, but have no sales experience. I look for candidates who are specific in what they want to do, and have the training or previous skills that compliment. So I strongly caution people to be specific about what it is that excites them.

This sector is only going to grow, and requires a skilled workforce to support it. There’s enough diversity and special skills, and we also can’t forget the basic fundamentals ie accounting and shipping that apply to any business.